Then less than 10% isn't really much of a carry, especially in small categories, especially when we still have a good bit of mandatory retirement movement in those fleets in the coming years. I was suprised to see how few age 64'ers took it. I think we had 85 mandatory outs for 2013 and only 20 something took this out? I bet several dozen of the remaining ones for 2013 are from the large WB fleets. Not only that, but ALPA says the average age to punch out is 62 or 63 anyway, so we will start to see more leave from later years next year as well.

Would they really run a displacement for what, 5-7% of relatively small categories, just in time to immediately post an AE to backfull the displacement? I don't think so, and if they don't, is it realy fair to call that slight buffer a carry?

They aren't flushing the tiny transient surplus because it makes no sense to do so. Not because we're sitting on a lot of fat and they are just trying to be nice about it.